After the rain…

Alright….so last time we left off at Chinatown and the fact that the rain kept us from doing anything else that day.

But the rain cleared up later on and in the afternoon we just took a casual stroll through Orchard Road. This is the heart of the shopping in Singapore, there are some massive shopping centers here and you can find pretty much anything you want (non piracy of course, we’ll save those goods for Thailand). We walked into one of the food courts and ordered in some satay sticks for all of us, chicken, pork and lamb….mmmmmm. Later on while walking along Orchard road we found a cafe that had some awesome cheesecakes with chocolate and oreo cookie crust….we just had to stop there and get some of those (did we mention that we like food of all sort).

We started of the next day by taking a walk from the apartments down to Clarke Quay to get some food….Suzie discovered that they had Hooters here and wanted to go there for their Buffalo Wings, I wanted to go there for entirely different reasons. To say the least, we were both very disappointed with the results. And just to finish off our experience in Hooters with style, we got some yummy desserts….vanilla ice-cream with corn ?!?

After lunch we headed over to Little India where we just walked up along Serangoon Road, looking at people, the stores and just trying to experience or get some sort of idea of what India actually would be like (and yes, obviously we know it will be heaps different….for one Singapore is one of the cleanest cities). We walked past the big Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, but since it was a saturday the place was closed….figures.

Next stop, Raffles Hotel, we caught the MRT (subway) to get there. We arrived at the hotel, took the obligatory photos of us at the front and then headed to the Long Bar to get our Singapore Slings. We had never tried these drinks….and probably never will again. In it’s defence, we thought that they would be a lot sweeter than they were, they weren’t too bad, but the complimentary nuts were great. The best part about it was that you just picked up your peanut, open the shell and tossed them on the floor……the dirtiest part of Singapore that we saw.

Well refreshed after our drinks (hmmmmmm…) we headed off towards the Fountain of Wealth. We had read about it, it’s supposed to be the largest fountain in the world. Well, we found it, but the damn thing wasn’t on at that time. And we weren’t about to wait around for another hour for just a fountain……so we moved on.

So we came home and were exhausted after all the walking, jumped in the pool for a while, just to relax and recuperate. After dinner we looked at each other and asked: “Are you up for some more sightseeing tonight??” Oh, well, ok…..we caught a taxi to the Night Safari Zoo.

The Night Safari is as you can tell by it’s name a Safari by Night ;)) You get to see the animals during night time feedings etc. It’s well worth the visit, we travelled around on a tram with some commentary (a bit cheesy but fun), walked around by ourselves and also got to see a show. One of the best things is that the animals aren’t behind cages, for the more dangerous animals there are large moats that protect you from them, for the other animals, pretty much nothing. The best part must have been when we were face to face with a big leopard just behind a glass or the fact that we had big bats flying on top of our heads…..Suzie was clinging to me at that time….it’s ok, I didn’t mind at all =))

On Sunday we made it over to the island of Sentosa, to the south of Singapore. We had planned to take the cable cars over to the island and at the same time also get some good views of the city but alas they weren’t working that day….ah well, we caught the bus, almost the same……just almost.

Once on Sentosa we made our way to the Underwater World where we wanted to see if we could dive with the sharks. We had tried to book tickets over the phone several times but unsuccessfully. At the information desk we were told that only one certified diver could come on the dive this time so Suzie ended up staying with Caitlyn while I went under the water. I geared up and actually got to take my camera with me under the water as well. It was only another girl and I that did the dive that day and it was awesome. We got to dive in the tank with the sharks and rays. Suzie and Caitlyn could at all times watch me through the glass. I got to feed the Eagle Rays and Napoleon Wrasse with cockles and also got to kiss a Zebra Shark….now that’s something you don’t do everyday. The dive was supposed to be 30 minutes but it seemed that our guide was enjoying herself as well because she kept wanting to use my camera to take photos of us under the water at all times, and the dive ended up being around 50 minutes. It was really really cool.

Later on during that day we were supposed to see a Dolphin show but it started raining and the show was delayed. We decided to just skip the show and head home to beat the crowds. Well, we got to the main bus station and the queue waiting for the bus was enormous, that was going to take all day. So one of us (we actually don’t know who) had the crazy idea of walking over the bridge back to the main island……in the rain. Well….about a kilometer later and wet through to our underwear, we reached the subway station (we figured no taxis were going to pick us up in our state). We caught a train and went straight home to the hot showers. Riding a train with air conditioning when you are soaking wet is no fun….

On our last day we just walked a bit more through Chinatown to see what we missed due to the storm last time, we picked up our obligatory $5 watches and later on found an enormous Hawker (place to eat) stall called Maxwell Food Court. After wandering the aisles a few times we picked out our food.

We almost got some rain today but managed to beat it…..to the airport tomorrow and our next stop…..Thailand.

Summary:

So what can we say about Singapore….??? Well, a lot of people have said that it’s a boring place to visit and we are wondering…..what did they do, did they stay at the hotel all the time??

Singapore has lots to offer, the city is clean and it feels very safe compared to other places. Sure it has some cons as well…..the main one being the price of beer which was quite a shock. At one of the food venues we went to they charged us $17 for a jug, another place was going to charge $38 for the same jug of Tiger beer.

The positive is that the food and transport is cheap, and there is a huge variety in food, I mean where else can you get a rice burger from McDonald’s!!?? (not that we tried it….McDonalds = Yuck!)